We know from Chronicle gal-about-town Leah Garchik's column that Willie started this week with a late arrival to Ruth Dewson's birthday party due to last Saturday's incredibly early St. Patrick's Day Parade that choked out Market Street for the awhile. Ruth Dewson, by the way, is a hat maker with a shop in Pac Heights and a penchant for cutting in line at La Boulange. So, she must be like the most quaint power broker ever.
Speaking of hats and power-brokerage, Willie really enjoyed The Adjustment Bureau with Matt Damon this week - so much that he's willing to hand out his endorsement of both the film and it's costume department. As he says, "If I owned the Wilkes Bashford store, I would be giving out free tickets to the movie as a promotion. Everyone in the bureau wears a hat and a killer three-piece suit." Matt Damon, was apparently the worst dressed in the film.
Willie, obviously a seasoned diplomat, also defends his favorite meat joint: Bourbon Steak against the new challenger Alexander's Steakhouse in his InsideScoop column this week (Which actually doesn't talk about Alexander's at all). We were unable to find any humorous bits in his write-up of Bourbon Steak this week because it reads half like a Yelp review and half like the restaurant's website. Except for this last sentence where he totally goes off the script: "In all I’d have to say that Bourbon Steak was my most memorable invasion this week." Memorable invasion?
And while we're on the topic of invasions, Willie warns that the exodus of African Americans from the city, coupled with an increase in the population of Asians who "have a whole different perspective about living space," could have a dramatic impact on the city in the future. We think that means we're heading for Bladerunner-style San Francisco, and actually - come to think of it there were a lot of flying food trucks and dingy white people living in old warehouses in that movie. So maybe that's accurate. This seems kind of a mean way to say Asians need less personal space than the rest of San Francisco though: "San Franciscans avoid density like the plague. The new Asian community thrives on it."
Just so we know which is Willie's favorite glass of red he tosses us a little story in to his parting anecdotes: Stopping by Campton Place for the first time in a few years, Willie met "the best bartender in town" whose name is Bill and remembered that Willie drinks the Duckhorn Merlot. It's good that Willie wrote that down this time, for when he inevitably forgets again.
And finally, because we can't forget how good he looks these days, a "woman who shall remain nameless" stopped him at that lavish party at Bimbo's last week, mentioning he looked "younger than ever" before asking bluntly, "Pardon me asking, but who does your surgery?"
